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Morgan County election results differ from state, nation

Morgan County for Mitt Romney

ByDAN BARKERandJENNI GRUBBS Times Staff

Posted:
11/07/2012 07:05:35 PM MST

Updated:
11/08/2012 09:04:50 AM MST

County voters show their IDs before voting Tuesday evening in Fort Morgan. The line to vote at the Morgan County Administration Building vote center stretches out down the hall behind them just before 5 p.m. Tuesday. Election workers said this was the busiest the vote center had been all day.

Even though President Barack Obama won re-election Tuesday, Morgan County voters chose Mitt Romney by 62 percent to Obama's 36 percent.

Sixty-seven percent voted for winning Congressman Cory Gardner, who was re-elected over challenger Brandon Shaffer, who only received 30 percent of the Morgan County vote. In Morgan County, about 10,600 people voted in this election, although not all cast votes for every election category.

Jim Zwetzig became the newest Morgan County commissioner, running unopposed, and won 8,204 votes.

Morgan County Commissioner Brian McCracken won re-election with 8,275 votes.

The Fort Morgan American Legion voting center had a steady stream of voters Tuesday, but not the crowds like at the county administration building.
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District attorney candidate Brittny Lewton also ran unopposed and was elected with 7,847 votes.

Amendment 64, a measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana, which was approved by Colorado voters, was disapproved by Morgan County voters. Fifty-eight percent of county voters cast ballots against the initiative.

However, the great majority of Morgan County voters approved Amendment 65, which encourages Washington, D.C. to change campaign finance law. In Morgan County, 71 percent voted for the amendment.

The county was pretty evenly split when it came to Amendment S, which changes the state employment system. Morgan County voters were against the measure 50.44 percent to 49.56 percent.

Amendments 65 and S passed statewide.

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Log Lane Village voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have increased mill levy collections by 81 percent to 19 percent.

"Everything's run very smoothly," Dep. Elections Clerk Pat Mendoza said about two hours before the polls closed Tuesday night. "There were a few bumps, but no great turbulence."

She added that things were "pretty busy" at the Morgan County Administration vote center, and most of the other vote centers, as well.

But things were slower at the American Legion vote center, which saw smaller numbers of voters.

"It's been very nice," Morgan County Clerk and Recorder Connie Ingmire said Tuesday night. "There's always some little thing, but for the most part, we've been very pleased as far as how things are turning out at the vote centers."

Of all the ballots, 91 percent of the ballots were mail-in ballots, which seems to show Morgan County voters like this system, she said. Also, of 8,932 mail-in ballots requested, 8,143 were returned, which is an excellent return rate.

A total of 960 people cast ballots during early voting.

Military ballots still have eight days to come in, so the totals will change, Ingmire said.

Morgan County Republicans enjoyed a potluck dinner before watching election results at their headquarters on East Platte Avenue Tuesday night.
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"The turnout has been very good," Ingmire said, adding that a lot of mail-in voters had returned their ballots, both by mail and in person.

And people were coming in to the clerk's office throughout the day and evening Tuesday to drop off their mail-in ballots.

"It's very convenient, but it's not for everybody," Ingmire said of the mail-in voting. "It's obvious Morgan County voters really enjoy the option."

She said that with early voting, mail-in ballots and both electronic and paper voting on Election Day, "there's something for everybody."

About two hours before the polls closed, Ingmire said she was happy with how the election had gone.

"I'll be curious when the figures to come in" to see the results, she said.

Wait times varied Tuesday at the vote center at the Morgan County Administration Building, as the number of voters fluctuated throughout the day. The largest rush, shown here, came in the early evening, bringing waits to vote of up to a half hour. Earlier in the day, the lines and the waits were shorter there, according to election workers. Wait times were shorter at the other vote center in Fort Morgan at the American Legion.

"It'll be really interesting to see how things turn out."

But she said that the important thing was that people got their chance to vote.

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